Timorese eye stronger education, trade ties after joining ASEAN, but some say country is ‘not yet ready’

Timor-Leste News

Timorese eye stronger education, trade ties after joining ASEAN, but some say country is ‘not yet ready’
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Asia’s youngest country Timor-Leste applied for ASEAN membership in 2011. Some citizens hope it will be granted this year while others believe the nation needs to first boost its domestic capabilities.

Youths Alda Femerini and Cristovao Reinato Estelita believe Timor-Leste will benefit from joining ASEAN but researcher Febe Gomes believes her country is not ready yet. DILI: When Maria do Ceu Lopes da Silva was younger, she had no interest in Tais, the handwoven traditional textile of Timor-Leste .

Ceu’s non-governmental organisation Timor Aid also trains women to weave Tais so that they can sell the textiles to earn income, and safekeep the tradition. ASEAN’s 10 member countries are home to over 660 million people and the bloc’s joint annual gross domestic product is nearly US$4 trillion. Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao joins a group photo at the 25th ASEAN-Republic of Korea Summit in Laos in October 2024. Timor-Leste was granted observer status in ASEAN in 2022. Ceu is not alone in embracing the prospect of Timor-Leste joining ASEAN.

Alda is a member of a youth organisation called NextGen Innovation Hub, set up by Cristovao Reinato Estelita, 22, to conduct talks and capacity-building activities for young Timorese to try and address the country’s challenges. The country is currently reliant on imported goods and “does not have local products that can support cooperation between Timor-Leste and ASEAN countries”, she said.

“By one account, from 2016 to 2019, more than half of Timor-Leste’s US$2.05 billion expenditure on imports went to five ASEAN economies, while its exports of goods and services in the same period to ASEAN was just US$95 million,” noted an ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute commentary in 2022.“Only a few of us whose parents can afford or pay for schools outside of Timor have the opportunity ,” she said.

But if it does join ASEAN, the country could offer its experience in “upholding democracy or how to defend human rights”, she said. Timor-Leste’s heritage as a Portuguese colony for over 400 years would enrich the ASEAN culture, said Soares of UNTL, the country’s only public university.

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